Please  read  carefully  and  hand  to  some  intelligent  friend. 


BALLOTS  FOR  BOTH 


AN    ADDRESS   BY 


CHIEF  JUSTICE  WALTER  CLARK 


GREENVILLE,  N.  C,  8   DECEMBER.  1916 


"In  North  Carolina  the  white  population  is  70%  and  the  negro  30%,  hence 
there  are  50,000  more  white  women  than  all  the  negro  men  and  negro  women 
put  together.  The  admission  of  the  women  to  the  suffrage  therefore  could 
not  possibly  jeopardise  White  Supremacy,  but  would  make  it  more  secure." 


"No  matter  how  bad  a  character  a  man  has,  if  he  can  only  keep  out  of 
the  penitentiary  and  the  insane  asylum  we  permit  him  to  vote  and  to  take  a 
share  in  the  government,  but  we  are  afraid  to  trust  our  mothers,  wives,  and 
daughters  to  give  us  the  aid  of  their  intelligence  and  clear  insight. 

"We  let  an  illiterate  foreigner  from  Italy,  from  Hungary,  from  Syria  come 
to  our  State,  and  after  five  years,  if  he  is  a  male  and  goes  through  a  cer- 
tain formula,  you  will  adjudge  him  fit  to  be  a  voter.  We  let  the  bartender 
and  those  who  live  upon  the  evils  and  vices  of  life  have  a  vote,  while  you 
deny  it  to  your  mothers,  your  wives,  your  sisters,  and  your  daughters. 

"They  say  that  a  woman  has  no  time  to  vote.  If  women  cannot  get  half 
an  hour  off  once  in  two  years  to  go  to  the  polls  then  they  need  the  ballot 
badly.  They  say  there  is  dirt  in  politics.  The  men  put  it  there,  for  they 
alone  have  been  running  it,  and  we  need  the  women  to  give  us  a  good  house- 
cleaning.  As  Mr.  Bryan  said,  'We  need  the  ballot  of  the  women  more  than 
they  need  it  for  themselves.'  " 


'NOT  YET  BUT  SOON' 


POSTSCRIPT 

Since  this  address  was  delivered,  the  following  States  have  adopted  Presi- 
dential Suffrage :  North  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Rhode  Island, 
Indiana,  and  in  Arkansas  the  women  can  vote  in  all  primaries,  so  that  now 
there  are  19  States,  casting  172  electoral  votes,  in  which  the  women  can  vote 
for  President.  In  North  Dakota,  Nebraska,  and  Indiana,  they  have  also  been 
admitted  to  Municipal  Suffrage,  and  in  Vermont  they  have  acquired  Municipal 
Suffrage.  In  Indiana  they  can  vote  for,  and  are  eligible  as,  delegates  to  the 
Constitutional  Convention  already  called.  Women  have  acquired  Full  Suf- 
frage in  British  Columbia,  Alberta,  Saskatchewan,  Manitoba,  Ontario,  and 
Nova  Scotia.  In  England  the  bill  for  Equal  Suffrage  has  passed  third  reading 
in  Lower  House  389-56,  and  the  new  Republic  of  Russia  is  pledged  also  to 
grant  it. 

Maine  will  vote  on  a  Referendum  for  Full  Suffrage  for  women  September, 
1917 ;  New  York  November,  1917 ;  North  Dakota,  Nebraska  and  Oklahoma  in 
1918. 


GROWING  IN  GRACE 

(By  Alice  Duer  Miller) 

O'er  the  Garden  of  Eden  the  very  first  dawning, 
Like  a  flood  from  the  East  was  beginning  to  roll, 
When  the  very  first  tortoise  remarked  without  warning, 
"What  a  curious  light,"  to  the  very  first  mole. 

The  very  first  mole  made  reply  without  turning, 

"It  is  only  a  craze — just  a  fad  of  the  skies." 

But  the  thing  kept  on  growing  and  glowing  and  burning ; 

"This  is  really  a  menace,"  they  said,  looking  wise. 

But  by  noon  when  the  sun  was  well  up  and  was  cheering 
The  tortoise,  and  even  the  mole  in  the  hole, 
They  forgot  all  about  their  alarm  and  their  sneering ; 
"We  have  always  approved,"  said  the  tortoise  and  mole. 

Note. — It  is  said  that  the  tortoise  and  the  mole  are  the  slowest  and  the 
blindest  of  all  created  'things — except  some  men. 


ADDRESS 

BY 

CHIEF  JUSTICE  WALTER  CLARK,  BEFORE  THE  EQUAL  SUFFRAGE  LEAGUE, 
GREENVILLE,  N.  C,  FRIDAY  NIGHT,  8  DECEMBER,  1916. 


Ladies  and  Fellow  Citizens: 

'At  the  request  of  the  Suffrage  League  of  your  city  I  am  here  to  say  a  few- 
words  in  behalf  of  this  great  democratic  movement  which,  world-wide  in  its 
extent,  and  irresistible  in  its  progress,  will  lift  humanity  to  a  higher  level 
and  better  conditions.  In  the  great  political  contest  through  which  we  have 
just  passed,  the  one  subject  on  which  all  five  of  the  National  parties  agreed 
was  in  pledging  themselves  to  grant  suffrage  to  women  on  the  same  terms  with 
men.  To  speak  in  its  support  is  like  advocating  the  Ten  Commandments. 
Some  may  not  favor,  but  none  are  exactly  in  a  condition  to  say  that  they  are 
opposed.  I  am  not  here  to  pass  any  eulogy  upon  Woman.  As  Webster  said  of 
Massachusetts,  "She  needs  none.  There  she  is.  Behold  her  and  judge  for 
yourselves." 

Four  years  ago  either  the  Democratic  and  the  Republican  National  Conven- 
tions did  not  consider  suffrage  or  voted  it  down  in  committee.  The  Progressive 
Party,  under  the  leadership  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  was  pledged  to  it  and  came 
in  under  the  wire  800,000  votes  ahead  of  the  Republican  organization  under 
President  Taft.  But  this  year,  when  the  Republican  Convention  met  at  Chicago 
the  leaders  became  aware  that  the  suffrage  States  had  doubled  in  number  and 
that  in  twelve  States,  casting  91  electoral  votes,  the  women  could  vote  for 
President  on  equal  terms  with  the  men.  And  that  those  votes  might  be,  as  in 
fact  they  proved  to  be,  the  deciding  vote  in  the  contest.  The  humor  of  the 
situation  was  that  they  put  up  Senator  Lodge  of  Massachusetts,  the  Prince  of 
Standpatters,  to  read  the  report  which  pledged  to  the  women  of  the  Equal 
Suffrage  States  the  enfranchisement  of  their  sisters  in  the  unenfranchised 
States. 

President  Wilson  not  many  months  back  had  refused  to  receive  a  delegation 
of  Equal  Suffragists,  but  as  he  said  in  a  recent  speech,  "A  wTise  man  may 
change  his  opinion,  but  a  fool  never  does."  He  did  not  belong  to  the  latter 
class,  and  later  he  journeyed  to  New  Jersey  to  register,  and  again  to  vote  in 
the  suffrage  election  in  that  State.  When  the  Democratic  Convention  met  at 
St.  Louis  the  captains  of  the  hosts  had  become  aware  that  as  to  91  electoral 
votes  the  women  could  control  the  choice  of  President.  They  also  knew  that 
the  Republican  Party  had  recently  pledged  itself  to  Equal  Suffrage.  A  resolu- 
tion to  pledge  the  party  to  Equal  Suffrage  in  the  unenfranchised  States  was 
introduced,  and  when  it  met  opposition  it  was  stated  from  the  platform  that 
President  Wilson  had  drawn  that  plank  with  his  own  hand,  and  deemed  its 
adoption  "essential  to  his  success;  and  requested  its  passage."  It  was  accord- 
ingly passed  by  a  vote  of  881%  to  a  vote  of  188%,  a  majority  of  the  North 
Carolina  delegation,  headed  by  its  chairman,  Gen.  Julian  S.  Carr,  voting  for  it. 
After  the  National  Republican  Convention  had  endorsed  Equal  Suffrage  it 
would  have  defeated  Mr.  Wilson  in  all  the  12  States  in  which  women  have 
Equal  Suffrage  to  have  gone  before  them  without  the  same  pledge  in  the 
Democratic  platform. 

CAN    EITHER   PARTY    REPUDIATE    ITS    PLEDGE    TO    SUFFRAGE? 

This  pledge  was  given  not  by  an  emotional  mob,  but  calmly  and  deliberately, 
because  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  secure  the  majority  of  those  91  votes. 
The  Democratic  Party  has  received  the  goods.  Without  that  resolution,  which 
President  Wilson  foretold  was  essential  to  his  success,  the  Democratic  Party 
could  not  have  secured  the  Presidency,  and  all  that  goes  with  it.  It  has 
received  the  goods,  the  public  patronage,  the  post  offices  and  the  administration 
0^  of  the  destinies  of  this  great  country.  Will  it  repudiate  its  pledge?  No  one 
fs*.    believes  that  a  great  party  can  stand  in  the  attitude  of  obtaining  goods  under 

>  3 


false  pretenses.  No  one  will  charge  that  President  Wilson  and  the  men  around 
him  and  the  leaders  of  the  great  historic  party  made  this  promise  with  the 
intention  of  getting  the  Presidency  and  then  repudiating  the  conditions. 

Years  ago  a  President  was  elected  by  a  party  on  a  platform  containing  a 
pledge.  After  the  election,  by  the  enormous  influence  of  the  lobby  backed  by 
certain  great  financial  interests,  the  pledge  was  broken  by  Congress,  and  the 
President  promptly  denounced  the  act  as  "party  perfidy  and  dishonor."  These 
were  words  that  blistered  and  burned  and  that  party  was  defeated  at  the  next 
election. 

I  say  that  the  pledge  for  Equal  Suffrage  was  not  only  put  in  this  platform 
to  secure  the  electoral  votes  of  the  12  Equal  Suffrage  States,  but  that  it  did 
secure  the  electoral  votes  in  10  of  them  and  gave  the  election  to  Mr.  Wilson. 
On  Monday  of  this  week  William  J.  Bryan,  before  an  intelligent  audience  in 
the  city  of  Raleigh,  in  my  hearing,  advocated  the  redemption  of  that  pledge, 
and  told  his  audience  that  deeming  that  the  crisis  of  the  battle  lay  in  those 
States,  he  had  canvassed  them  thoroughly,  and  that  everywhere  he  had 
appealed  to  the  women  to  support  Mr.  Wilson  on  that  pledge,  and  on  his  vote 
for  suffrage  in  New  Jersey,  that  they  had  done  so,  and  that  Mr.  Wilson  owed 
his  election  to  the  confidence  of  the  women  of  those  States  in  that  pledge. 

No  one  will  question  Mr.  Bryan's  accuracy  in  any  statement  that  he  makes, 
but  there  is  corroboration  in  the  election  returns.  An  analysis  will  show  that 
in  the  nonsuffrage  States,  where  the  women  did  not  vote,  Mr.  Wilson's  gains 
over  the  vote  of  four  years  ago  averaged  from  nothing  to  26%,  but  that  in 
the  Suffrage  States  his  gains  averaged  from  76  to  126%.  The  leaders  of  that 
party  made  the  pledge  to  win  the  Presidency,  and  they  have  won.  It  should 
not  go  down  in  history  that  when  the  Democratic  Legislature  in  North  Caro- 
lina met  in  1917  they  repudiated  the  promises  upon  which  the  party  had 
won  the  Presidency.  There  have  been  instances  of  men  who  made  promises 
to  women  and  then  thought  it  a  joke  to  deceive  them,  but  the  world  has 
never  held  such  to  be  honorable  men,  and  some  of  them  have  figured  in  the 
prisoner's  dock. 

It  is  true  that  this  pledge  was  for  Suffrage  to  Women  on  the  same  terms 
as  men,  by  "State  Action."  It  is  only  such  action  that  can  be  taken  by  the 
Legislature  of  North  Carolina,  and  I  will  state  presently  what  it  can  be. 

It  is  true  that  the  Republican  Party  did  not  receive  the  goods.  It  did  not 
obtain  the  Presidency.  The  women  in  the  Suffrage  States  preferred  to  believe 
Mr.  Bryan  and  other  leaders  who  told  them  that  Mr.  Wilson  had  gone  to 
New  Jersey  to  register  and  to  vote  for  suffrage;  that  the  plank  in  the  Demo- 
cratic platform  in  their  favor  had  been  drawn  by  his  own  hands,  and  that 
Mr.  Hughes  had  never  voted  for  the  measure  in  his  own  State,  and  while 
Governor  had  vetoed  a  bill  to  give  them  equal  pay  with  men  for  equal  service. 
Still  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Republican  Party,  and  must  so  remain  till  an- 
other convention  shall  change  it,  and  more  than  that,  when  the  next  election 
comes  on  for  President  there  will  not  only  be  91  electoral  votes  from  States 
in  which  women  vote,  but  there  will  be  many  more,  and  neither  the  Republican 
Party  nor  the  Democratic  Party  can  afford  to  go  into  another  Presidential 
election  without  a  pledge  to  enfranchise  the  women  in  the  unredeemed  States, 
if  any  such  shall  remain  at  that  time.  What  faith  will  be  given  to  such 
pledge  when  made  by  a  party  that  has  broken  the  one  given  this  year?  In 
this,  as  in  all  other  matters,  honesty  is  the  essential  policy. 

"There  are  hills  beyond  Pentland,  there  are  lands  beyond  Forth." 

There  will  be  other  Presidential  elections,  and  those  who  have  broken  faith 
as  to  their  pledges  in  this  election  will  find  it  hard  to  be  credited  with  pledges 
then.  No  party  can  henceforth  elect  a  President  who  is  not  an  advocate  of 
Equal  Suffrage. 

No  one  will  place  much  reliance  upon  the  gratitude  of  any  political  party 
for  services  rendered  or  pledges  given.  In  politics  "gratitude  is  a  lively  sense 
of  favors  to  come."  The  guarantee  of  good  faith  is  that  there  are  other 
elections,  and  it  will  not  be  safe  to  face  the  electorate  in  the  Suffrage  States 
with  a  record  of  broken  pledges.  Besides,  both  parties  have  pledged  suffrage 
by  State  action.  If  this  is  not  had,  then  the  demand  for  suffrage  by  amend- 
ment of  the  Federal  Constitution  will  be  such  that  the  average  Congressman 
will  not  risk  his  re-election  by  voting  against  it. 


PRESIDENTIAL    SUFFRAGE. 

It  may  be  asked  what  can  be  done,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  of  North 
Carolina,  to  procure  justice  for  women?  There  are  four  measures  which  I 
will  submit  for  the  consideration  of  this  audience  as  feasible  and  which 
should  be  adopted  by  the  Legislature  this  winter  : 

1.  In  Illinois  in  the  last  election  876,700  women  went  to  the  polls  and  voted 
for  President  aud  a  woman  was  one  of  those  chosen  as  elector.  Yet  in  that 
State  their  Constitution,  like  ours,  prescribes  that  only  male  persons  21  years 
old  can  vote.  What  the  Illinois  Legislature  did  we  can  do  and  every  State 
can  do.  Presidential  suffrage  is  not  fixed  by  the  State  Constitution,  but  the 
Federal  Constitution  prescribes  that  the  electors  for  President  shall  be  chosen 
"in  such  manner  as  the  Legislature  thereof  may  direct."  In  many  of  the  States 
for  fifty  years  the  Legislatures  chose  the  electors  themselves,  and  this  was 
done  by  South  Carolina  till  after  the  Civil  War  and  by  Colorado  as  late  as 
1876.  When  the  women  of  Illinois  perceived  that  the  influence  of  the  liquor 
trusts  and  brewers  was  such  that  a  constitutional  amendment  to  strike  out 
the  word  "male"  in  State  elections  could  not  be  adopted  at  the  polls,  they 
procured  the  passage  of  an  act  by  a  majority  of  the  Legislature,  indeed  in  one 
house  by  a  majority  of  one,  which  directed  that  the  selection  of  the  29  Presi- 
dential electors  for  that  State  should  be  made  by  the  vote  of  men  and  women 
21  years  of  age.  Upon  the  validity  of  this  action  the  Presidential  election 
might  have  turned.  But  not  a  lawyer  from  ocean  to  ocean  has  ventured  to 
question  the  power  of  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  to  do  this. 

This  winter  the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina  should  pass  an  act  conferring 
Presidential  suffrage  upon  the  women  of  this  State.  This  will  require  only  a 
majority  vote  in  each  house,  and  will  not  need  to  be  ratified  at  the  ballot-box. 
As  the  Democratic  Party  has  pledged  itself  for  Equal  Suffrage  by  "State 
Action,"  no  member  of  the  Legislature  who  stands  by  the  platform  of  his 
party  can  vote  against  it.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Republican  members  of 
the  Legislature,  for  that  party,  too,  is  pledged  to  Equal  Suffrage  by  State 
action.  These  pledges  were  put  in  the  respective  party  platforms  as  a  bid 
for  the  91  electoral  votes  in  the  State  where  women  voted,  and  to  repudiate 
that  pledge  would  prove  insincerity  and  an  attempt  to  obtain  the  Presidency 
under  false  pretenses. 

MUNICIPAL   SUFFRAGE. 

2.  Since  the  adoption  of  the  recent  amendments  to  our  Constitution  cutting 
out  local  legislation  it  will  be  necessary  to  pass  a  general  act  providing  for 
the  incorporation  of  towns  and  cities.  That  general  act  should  contain  a 
provision  conferring  municipal  suffrage  in  all  the  towns  and  cities  of  the 
State  upon  women  equally  with  men,  or  at  least  a  provision  that  it  shall  be 
inserted  in  the  charter  of  any  town  where  on  a  vote  by  men  and  women  such 
provision  shall  be  adopted.  This  has  been  done  in  Florida,  where  many 
towns  have  admitted  women  to  municipal  suffrage  by  local  vote. 

There  are  lawyers  who  at  first  blush  will  say  that  this  is  contrary  to  the 
State  Constitution,  and  indeed  it  was  so  held  in  Van  Bokkelen  v.  Canady, 
73  N.  C.  Reports,  198,  at  a  time  when  the  Republican  Supreme  Court  thought 
that  it  should  prevent  a  Democratic  Legislature  from  taking  possession  of 
the  government  of  the  city  of  Wilmington.  But  these  lawyers  must  not 
forget  that  to  meet  this  very  matter  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1875 
put  in  the  Constitution  a  provision  authorizing  the  Legislature  to  control  in 
any  manner  it  saw  fit,  the  selection  of  city  and  county  governments,  and  that 
under  this  measure  the  Legislature  elected  the  magistrates  for  many  counties, 
who  were  empowered  to  choose  the  county  commissioners  and  other  county 
officers,  and  thus  control  the  county  government.  The  Legislature  was  thus 
given  the  same  power  over  the  selection  of  county  government  and  city  officials 
as  the  Federal  Constitution  has  given  to  the  State  Legislatures  as  to  the 
manner  of  appointing  electors  for  President.  Later  on,  as  to  the  same  city 
of  Wilmington,  the  General  Assembly  authorized  the  Governor  to  select  one- 
half  of  the  aldermen  of  that  city,  and  in  Harris  v.  Wright,  121  N.  C,  172,  the 
Supreme  Court  of  this  State  held  that  this  was  valid  and  that  the  entire 


6 

machinery  of  electing  county  and  city  governments  was  vested  in  the  Legis- 
lature. Indeed,  if  the  Legislature  can,  as  it  did,  select  a  few  magistrates  as 
the  electorate  to  choose  the  county  commissioners  and  other  county  officers 
and  can,  as  it  did,  make  the  Governor  the  elector  to  choose  half  the  board 
ot  aldermen  of  Wilmington,  it  has  the  power  to  direct  the  election  of  citv 
officials  by  the  men  and  women  of  each  town. 

It  is  entirely  in  the  power  of  the  Legislature  to  create  and  change  the  form 
of  city  government  and  provide  by  a  general  statute  how  those  officials  shall 
be  chosen  and  by  whom.  For  some  towns  the  Legislature  may  prescribe  a 
business  manager,  for  others  a  commission  form  of  government  and  for 
others  a  government  elected  by  the  men  and  women  of  the  city. 

In  Harris  v.  Wright,  121  N.  C,  172,  it  was  held  that  the  Constitution,  Art. 
VH,  sec.  14,  "providing  that  the  General  Assembly  shall  have  full  power  by 
statute  to  modify,  change,  or  abrogate  any  and  all  of  the  provisions  of  that 
article  (except  sees.  7,  9  and  13)  and  substitute  others  in  their  stead,  all 
charters,  ordinances  and  provisions  relating  to  municipal  corporations  are 
entrusted  to  the  discretion  of  the  Legislature"  and  held  valid  the  act  authoriz- 
ing the  Governor  to  select  one-half  the  aldermen  of  Wilmington.  This  case 
has  been  repeatedly  approved  since  down  to  Newell  v.  Green,  169  N.  C,  463. 

This  act  conferring  municipal  suffrage  on  women  can  therefore  be  passed  by 
a  majority  vote  in  each  house  without  submission  to  the  ballot-box. 

WOMEN    MAY    HOLD    ANY    OFFICE    CREATED    BY    LEGISLATURE. 

3.  The  third  act  that  can  be  passed  by  a  majority  vote  of  each  house, 
without  reference  to  the  ballot-box  (where  such  measures  would  be  fought  by 
the  liquor  interests  and  the  element  that  is  opposed  to  the  moral  influence  of 
women  on  politics),  would  be  to  authorize  women  to  hold  any  office  or  position 
created  by  the  Legislature,  including  especially  all  positions  in  the  school 
system  of  the  State. 

I  know,  indeed,  that  it  will  be  objected  at  once  that  women  are  debarred 
by  our  Constitution  from  holding  office  in  North  Carolina.  Not  merely  to  law- 
yers, but  I  appeal  to  every  man  or  woman  who  can  read  the  English  language 
to  say  if  there  can  be  found  in  the  Constitution  of  North  Carolina  the  word 
"male"  used  as  a  qualification  for  office.  I  know  that  preconceived  opinions 
and  prejudice  and  custom  and  our  method  of  taking  things  for  granted,  be- 
cause they  have  not  been  questioned,  will  predispose  men  to  say  that  our  Con- 
stitution disqualifies  women  from  holding  office.  I  assert  without  fear  of 
contradiction  that  no  such  qualification  can  be  found  in  tbat  instrument. 

In  the  Federal  Constitution  there  is  no  disqualification  which  bars  any 
woman  to  hold  any  office  in  the  Federal  government  from  President  down. 
Many  thousands  have  been  postmasters  and  others  have  held  important  offices 
such  as  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue,  and  but  recently  three  women  have 
been  chosen  Presidential  electors  and  one  is  a  member  of  Congress. 

Our  State  Constitution  does  use  the  word  "male"  as  a  qualification  for  State 
suffrage.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  this  brand  was  placed  upon  the 
women  at  a  time  when  the  subject  was  not  considered.  But  that  Convention 
did  not  go  so  far  as  to  disqualify  the  people  from  selecting  a  woman  as  a 
public  servant.  It  provides  that  "every  voter  shall  be  eligible  to  office." 
This  was  intended  to  prevent  any  future  Legislature  from  disqualifying  negroes 
from  holding  office,  but  it  did  not  provide  that  "no  one  but  a  voter  should  hold 
office."    You  will  see  the  distinction. 

But  even  if  women  had  been  disqualified  to  hold  office,  it  has  been  held  in 
every  State,  except  ours,  that  qualifications  required  for  office  in  a  State  Con- 
stitution apply  only  to  those  offices  which  are  created  by  the  Constitution, 
and  that  as  to  positions  and  offices  created  by  the  Legislature,  that  body  can 
prescribe  the  qualifications  for  every  position  created  by  it,  its  tenure  and 
everything  concerning  it  and  change  these  at  will.  In  North  Carolina  alone 
of  the  forty-eight  States,  it  was  held  many  years  ago,  under  the  pressure  of 
peculiar  conditions,  in  Hoke  v.  Henderson,  that  an  office  was  a  contract,  and 
therefore  the  Legislature  could  not  change  the  encumbents  of  a  position  created 
by  it.  This  doctrine  was  not  followed  by  any  other  State,  and  for  seventy  years 
it  was  a  source  of  endless  vexation  in  this  State  whenever  the  Legislature 


was  controlled  by  one  political  party  and  the  Supreme  Court  by  the  other. 
The  result  was  at  last  unendurable,  and  in  Mial  v.  Ellington,  134  N.  C.  Reports, 
the  doctrine  of  Hoke  v.  Henderson  was  utterly  repudiated,  and  this  State  has 
ever  since  conformed  to  the  universal  ruling  elsewhere. 

The  truth  is  that  offices  named  in  the  Constitution  are  beyond  legislative 
control,  not  because  they  are  contracts,  but  because  being  created  by  the 
Constitution  the  qualifications  for,  and  tenure  of,  such  offices  are  beyond 
legislative  control.  But  as  to  all  offices  and  positions  created  by  the  Legisla- 
ture itself  the  qualifications  and  tenure  are  ■  entirely  at  the  control  of  the 
Legislature,  who  can  change  them  at  will.  It  is  true  that  some  one  has  said 
that  women  cannot  be  notary  publics  until  the  Constitution  is  amended. 
There  is  another  way,  and  that  is  for  one  judge  to  change  his  opinion,  for 
the  decision  was  made  only  by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  it  is  more  difficult  for  a  judge  to  do  this  than  to  get  a  constitutional 
amendment  adopted,  but  there  have  been  judges  who  have  overruled  their 
previous  opinions  upon  being  convinced  that  they  are  wrong.  If  this  cannot 
be  accomplished,  there  are  methods  of  legislation  by  which  the  Legislature 
can  always  accomplish  its  purpose  without  straining  the  consciences  of  the 
judges. 

The  Executive  Department  of  our  State  is  at  least  staked  out  on  this 
question.  By  what  I  think  a  just  recognition,  the  Governor  has  appointed  a 
lady,  who  had  already  filled  the  duties  of  the  office  during  the  illness,  of  her 
predecessor,  to  be  Private  Secretary.  The  statute.  Rev.  5330,  prescribes  the 
duties  of  the  office,  and  adds.  Rev.  2737,  that  besides  the  salary  of  $2,000  the 
incumbent  shall  ex  officio  be  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Internal  Improve- 
ments at  a  salary  of  $5  per  day.  "Ex  officio"  means,  as  you  know,  "by  virtue 
of  the  office,"  thus  expressly  recognizing  the  position  as  such.  Every  pardon, 
every  commission,  every  assignment  of  a  judge  to  hold  a  special  term,  signed 
by  the  Governor,  must  be  countersigned  by  her  as  Private  Secretary,  and  she 
must  affix  the  State  seal  to  every  State  bond  and  every  grant.  Rev.  2737.  If 
a  notary  public  cannot  certify  to  the  evidence  taken  down  by  herself  as  a 
stenographer  because  that  would  make  it  an  office,  what  becomes  of  the 
validity  of  pardons,  of  commissions,  of  special  terms,  of  State  bonds  and 
grants,  and  all  other  official  acts  of  the  Executive  which  are  thus  counter- 
signed by  a  woman?  Besides  our  volumes  of  laws  in  publishing  the  list  of 
Commissioners  of  Affidavits  from  this  State  (who  are  North  Carolina  officers). 
have  carried  for  years  the  names  of  women  appointed  to  that  office  by  our 
Governors,  and  upon  the  validity  of  such  appointment  depends  many  deeds 
probated  before  them,  especially  in  New  York  City  and  Danville,  Va. 

The  Constitution  of  North  Carolina.  Art.  VI.  sec.  7.  states  the  qualifications 
for  office,  and  sec.  8  of  same  article  and  sees.  2  and  7  of  Art.  XIV  state  the 
disqualifications  for  office,  but  none  of  these  disqualify  women.  If  there  is 
any  power  to  bar  them  out  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Constitution,  nor  in 
any  statute. 

FULL     SUFFRAGE. 

4.  The  fourth  measure  which  this  Legislature  should  pass  (since  the  Demo- 
cratic and  Republican  Parties  were  in  good  faith  when  they  pledged  to  the 
12  Equal  Suffrage  States  that  they  would  favor  the  adoption  of  equal  suffrage 
by  State  action)  is  the  passage  of  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  con- 
ferring upon  the  women  of  the  State  full  suffrage.  This  measure,  unlike  the 
others  above  named,  would  require  a  vote  of  3/5  in  each  house  of  the  General 
Assembly  and  its  adoption  by  the  people  at  the  ballot-box,  where  it  would  be 
fought  by  all  the  powers  of  reaction  and  prejudice,  by  all  those  who  are 
opposed  to  any  change  and  by  the  full  weight  of  the  liquor  interests,  which  in 
every  State  have  furnished  the  campaign  funds  for  that  purpose,  and  by  those 
party  leaders  who  fear  that  the  advent  of  women  to  the  polls  may  jeopardize 
any  compact,  well  defined  inner  circle  which  may  happen  to  control  affairs 
anywhere.  The  measure  might  be  beaten  the  first  time,  but  the  campaign  will 
educate  the  voters  and  will  win  in  North  Carolina  as  it  has  done  elsewhere, 
ultimately,  if  not  at  the  first  election.    In  the  meantime  we  shall  have  had  the 


8 

demonstration  of  the  fitness  of  women  by  their  exercise  of  Presidential  and 
municipal  suffrage  and  their  example  of  fitness  in  offices  created  by  the  Legis- 
lature. 

In  1776,  at  Philadelphia,  in  that  immortal  Declaration,  from  which  dates  all 
free  and  representative  government,  it  was  solemnly  declared  to  the  peoples 
of  the  world  as  a  fundamental  truth  that  all  men  are  "created  free  and 
equal."  Every  one  knew  that  this  embraced  the  women  as  well  as  men.  It 
was  also  pledged  that  "taxation  without  representation  was  tyranny."  Thomas 
Jefferson,  who  drew  that  instrument,  so  understood  it,  for  he  declared  in 
1804,  more  than  a  century  ago,  that  it  was  inconceivable  to  him  "that  any 
State  should  bestow  the  suffrage  upon  the  most  ignorant  and  besotted  man 
and  deny  it  to  the  most  intelligent  ajid  virtuous  woman." 

In  1836,  Abraham  Lincoln  so  understood  it,  for  in  his  canvass  for  the  Legis- 
lature he  announced  as  his  platform  the  grant  of  suffrage  "to  all  of  sufficient 
intelligence  and  character,  not  excluding  women."  His  phrase  of  "government 
of  all  the  people,  by  all  the  people,  for  all  the  people"  never  meant  "govern- 
of  all  the  people,  by  half  the  people,  and  for  half  the  people." 

If  the  honor  and  the  faith  of  all  the  great  political  parties  and  their  leaders 
were  not  already  pledged  to  the  grant  of  suffrage  the  fact  remains  that  91 
electoral  votes  are  cast  by  States  in  which  the  women  vote,  and  the  number 
will  be  never  less,  and  no  political  party  henceforth  can  hope  to  swing  the 
vote  of  those  States  unless  by  a  pledge  to  which  full  faith  is  given  by  the 
women  voters  of  those  States. 

The  possession  of  the  91  electoral  votes,  the  balance  of  power,  reminds  one 
of  the  incident  in  Charles  O'Malley,  that  delightful  picture  of  life  in  Western 
Ireland.  On  one  occasion,  when  a  man's  father  died,  his  son  went  to  the 
priest  to  pray  him  out  of  purgatory.  Not  paying  a  large  fee,  the  priest  a  little 
later  reported  that  he  had  got  the  father's  head  out.  The  son  paying  another 
small  fee,  the  priest  reported  that  the  father  had  his  right  arm  and  shoulder 
out.  Whereupon  the  son  declined  to  make  any  further  payment.  The  priest 
reproving  him  for  his  unfilial  conduct,  the  son  replied :  "You  do  not  know 
the  owld  mon.  If  he  has  got  his  head  and  right  shoulder  and  arm  out,  all 
h — 11  can't  hold  him." 

The  facility  with  which  some  party  leaders  have  changed  front  on  this 
question  is  only  equaled  by  an  incident  which  Senator  Smith  of  South  Caro- 
lina related  to  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  Raleigh.  He  said  that  a  con- 
stituent of  his,  a  man  of  some  local  prominence,  who  happened  to  be  in 
Washington,  insisted  that  the  Senator  should  see  the  President  and  urge  him 
to  end  the  war  in  Europe,  pointing  out  the  terrible  loss  of  millions  of  men 
and  of  property,  the  suffering  of  women  and  children,  and  indeed  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  foundations  of  society.  The  Senator  told  him  that  it  was  a  good 
suggestion,  and  he  would  tell  the  President  about  it,  and  then  added :  "By 
the  way,  Jim,  the  Germans,  French,  and  British  have  4,000  big  guns  which 
they  are  firing  every  two  minutes,  night  and  day,  and  to  make  the  gun  cotton 
requires  a  bale  of  cotton  for  every  discharge."  Thereupon  his  friend  said : 
"Good  gracious,  I  hope  the  war  will  last  ten  years." 

WOMEN   EFFICIENT  IN   POLITICS. 

The  efficiency  with  which  the  women  have  managed  their  political  campaign 
by  getting  President  Wilson  on  their  side,  and  then  getting  Judge  Hughes  to 
go  a  little  bit  further,  and  then  getting  Mr.  Wilson  to  make  a  still  further 
bid  for  their  support,  shows  no  small  adaptability  for  political  life.  It  may 
be,  that  as  they  have  spent  their  lives  in  controlling  individual  men,  they 
know  well  how  to  move  them  en  masse.  But  they  have  not  limited  themselves 
to  persuasion.  In  the  Congress  before  the  present  there  were  several  members 
who  were  offensive  in  their  opposition,  and  when  the  returns  came  in  for  the 
present  Congress  25  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  these  men  were  left  home.  It 
is  said  that  in  the  coming  Congress  between  40  and  50  seats  will  be  filled  by 
new  men  who  are  friends  of  suffrage  and  replacing  its  enemies.  This  con- 
dition reminds  us  of  the  city  man  who  in  these  times  of  high  prices  applied  to 
a  farmer  for  employment.  He  was  given  the  work  of  cleaning  up  the  premises, 
which  he  did  so  well  and  intelligently  that  the  farmer  went  back  to  the 


house.  In  about  half  an  hour  the  man  burst  in  the  door  with  his  face  swollen 
and  marked  in  all  colors  like  a  war  map  of  Europe,  and  said  hastily :  "Squire, 
gim'me  my  coat ;  I  am  going."  The  squire  asked  what  was  the  matter.  The 
man  had  no  time  to  answer,  but  threw  back  over  his  shoulder,  "I  don't  know, 
but  it  started  when  I  began  to  dust  the  beehives." 

WHY  WOMEN   SHOTJLD  VOTE. 

It  may  be  asked  why  women  should  have  the  vote.  It  is  enough  that  they 
are  taxpayers  and  of  equal  intelligence  and  character  with  men,  and  hence, 
are  entitled  to  a  voice  of  the  government  which  they  do  so  much  to  support. 
They  raise  the  men  who  fill  your  armies  and  carry  on  the  work  of  the  country, 
and  they  should  have  a  voice  in  the  laws  which  should  protect  the  morals  and 
the  wellbeing  of  the  home,  the  women  and  children,  and  of  the  men  whom 
they  have  brought  up  for  their  country's  service. 

Women  own  probably  one-half  of  the  property  in  every  State.  In  New 
York  the  tax  list  shows  that  of  the  five  largest  taxpayers,  three,  including  the 
two  very  highest,  are  women ;  and  in  New  Orleans  considerably  over  half  the 
property  is  owned  by  the  women.  And  yet  they  say  that  "taxation  without 
representation  is  tyranny."  Many  large  taxpayers  are  widows  or  unmarried 
women,  but  they  are  not  allowed  to  vote  in  this  State  even  on  bond  issues. 

It  is  said  that  they  do  not  want  the  suffrage.  The  answer  is  that  they 
have  brought  forward  the  demand  for  it  before  every  State  in  the  Union. 
Whenever  submitted  to  the  ballot-box,  in  only  a  few  States  has  it  been  carried 
at  first  for  only  men  can  vote  on  the  amendment.  In  some  the  amendment  has 
been  voted  on  three  and  four  times.  In  Oregon  the  vote  was  taken  five  times, 
and  five  times  it  went  down  in  defeat.  On  the  sixth  ballot  it  carried  the 
State.  As  further  proof  that  they  do  want  it,  in  the  last  election  in  every 
State  where  the  women  voted  they  cast  about  the  same  proportion  of  ballots 
as  among  the  men. 

What  is  true  among  the  women  in  these  other  States  and  countries  is  true 
here.  They  are  silent  and  not  aggressive  after  these  long  years  of  repression, 
but  the  feeling  is  deep  and  general.  During  the  Know-Nothing  campaign  in 
Virginia  before  the  war,  Wise,  who  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Gov- 
ernor, in  one  of  the  counties  in  Southwestern  Virginia  made  a  rabid  attack 
upon  the  Know-Nothings  as  a  secret  order,  and  eliciting  no  response,  taunted 
Flournoy  with  the  assertion  that  there  was  not  a  Know-Nothing  in  the 
audience.  To  this  Flournoy  replied  by  waving  his  hand,  and  saying:  "Get 
up,  Sam !"  and  thereupon,  to  Wise's  utter  consternation,  the  entire  audience 
to  a  man  rose  to  its  feet. 

After  Judge  Hughes  had  gone  beyond  his  party  in  pledging  himself  to 
Equal  Suffrage  by  Federal  amendment,  as  well  as  by  State  action,  President 
Wilson  went  to  the  National  Convention  of  the  Woman's  Suffrage  Convention 
at  Atlantic  City,  and  in  his  speech  he  told  them  that  he  had  come  "to  fight 
with  them,"  not  against  them;  that  their  "enfranchisement  throughout  the 
country  would  be  certain  and  soon."  The  convention  then  in  twenty  minutes 
raised  a  campaign  fund  of  $818,800,  which  has  since,  I  believe,  been  increased 
to  $1,000,000.  In  New  York,  where  suffrage  was  beaten  last  year,  the  Legis- 
lature has  already  passed  an  act  again  submitting  the  amendment  for  suffrage 
to  the  people  next  year,  and  in  a  meeting  at  Albany  $300,000  was  raised  by 
the  women  in  a  few  moments.  This  is  talking  in  a  tongue  which  politicians 
can  understand,  and  it  is  not  the  language  of  those  who  are  indifferent  about 
suffrage.  Mrs.  Frank  Leslie  left  the  Equal  Suffrage  cause  $1,500,000,  which 
has  been  affirmed  by  the  courts,  and  others  have  given  the  cause  large  gifts 
and  bequests.  Not  a  dollar  of  this  money  will  be  used  for  corruption,  but  for 
educational  campaigns  which  is  all  that  suffrage  needs.  This  is  not  the 
language  of  those  who  do  not  want  the  right  to  vote,  but  of  those  who  intend 
to  win  it. 

The  greatest  obstacle  to  Equal  Suffrage  outside  of  the  money  and  paid 
orators  of  the  liquor  interests  is  ignorance  and  overconservatism.  This  is 
best  typified  by  an  incident  told  by  the  elder  Judge  Dick.  When  riding  the 
circuit  as  a  Superior  Court  Judge,  in  Surry  County  he  overtook  a  half-grown 
lad  going  to  mill  on  horseback  with  a  bag  thrown  across  the  horse,  in  one 


10 

end  of  which  was  the  corn  and  in  the  other  a  stone  to  balance  it.  He  asked 
the  lad  why  he  did  not  balance  it  by  putting  half  the  corn  in  each  end  of  the 
sack.  With  amazement  he  replied  r  "Grandad  did  this  way,  and  I  guess  he 
had  more  sense  than  you  be." 

EDUCATION   OF   WOMEN   WAS   OPPOSED. 

Ninety  years  ago  the  first  college  for  girls  was  established  by  Miss  Willard 
at  Troy,  New  York.  The  outcry  against  the  education  of  girls  went  up  on  all 
sides.  Exactly  the  same  arguments  were  used  against  it  as  now  against 
Equal  Suffrage — predictions  of  an  increase  in  divorces,  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  wife  over  fehe  husband,  of  immorality,  and  every  other  possible  evil. 
When  years  later  it  was  proposed  to  change  the  laws  by  which  till  then  all  the 
wife's  property  became  the  property  of  her  husband  instantly  upon  marriage, 
precisely  the  same  predictions  were  again  uttered,  only  more  fiercely,  if 
possible.  It  was  said  that  every  man  and  his  wife  would  quarrel  over  the 
property,  just  as  it  is  now  predicted  that  they  will  quarrel  over  politics.  It 
was  not  till  1874  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  this  State  overruled  its  previous 
uniform  decisions  that  a  man  had  a  right  to  whip  his  wife  with  a  switch  no 
larger  than  his  thumb,  for  had  not  Chief  Justice  Pearson  said  that  "It  was 
the  duty  of  the  husband  to  make  the  wife  behave  herself,  and  therefore  he 
had  a  right  to  whip  her."  It  is  hard  to  get  out  of  the  heads  of  some  men 
the  idea  that  they  are  lords,  and  the  women  are  naturally  their  subjects.  It 
is  amusing  to  hear  some  of  these  express  their  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
intentions  of  the  Almighty  by  saying  "God  never  intended  that  a  woman 
should  be  equal  to  a  man."  The  conduct  of  such  men  is  generally  such  as  to 
throw  a  doubt  upon  their  being  especially  privileged  to  express  the  will  of 
God ;  their  conduct  certainly  does  not  show  much  acquaintance  with  it. 

ARGUMENTS    AGAINST    SUFFRAGE. 

It  is  difficult  to  answer  the  conflicting  arguments  against  suffrage.  One 
will  assert  that  if  women  vote  they  will  take  to  drinking ;  another,  on  the 
contrary,  will  say  that  they  will  not  allow  a  man  to  get  within  a  mile  of  a 
drop  of  whiskey.  The  truth  is  that  the  liquor  interests  furnish  the  speakers 
and  the  campaign  funds  to  fight  the  adoption  of  Equal  Suffrage.  Liquor 
dealers  have  no  illusions  about  the  views  of  the  women  who  are  the  chief 
sufferers  from  the  debauchery  of  the  men. 

There  are  those  who  will  say  that  the  women  will  vote  like  their  husbands, 
and  it  will  simply  double  the  vote  without  any  benefit,  forgetting  that  there 
are  in  the  United  States  9,000,000  of  unmarried  women,  while  there  are  others 
who  will  say  that  if  the  women  are  allowed  to  vote  they  will  differ  from  their 
husbands  and  thus  increase  divorces.  But  the  fact  is  that  the  ratio  of  divorces 
has  diminished  in  every  State  that  has  adopted  suffrage  for  the  reason  that 
wives  are  better  treated.  There  are  those  who  assert  that  if  women  are 
given  the  suffrage  but  few  of  them  will  go  to  the  polls,  which  is  contradicted 
by  the  election  returns  from  every  suffrage  State.  Others  assert  that  they 
will  vote  in  block  as  a  sex  and  overwhelm  the  male  vote,  which  is  also  con- 
trary to  experience. 

There  are  those  who  assert  that  in  the  South  to  allow  the  women  to  vote 
will  bring  out  the  negro  women  and  overwhelm  us.  The  truth  is  that  in 
North  Carolina  the  white  population  is  70%  and  the  negro  30%,  hence  there 
are  50,000  more  white  women  than  all  the  negro  men  and  negro  women  put 
together,  and  their  admission  to  the  suffrage  could  not  possibly  jeopardize 
white  supremacy.  Besides,  if  the  white  men  are  able  to  prevent  the  colored 
cook's  husband  from  voting!  they  ought  to  be  able  to  prevent  the  cook  herself 
voting.     Equal  Suffrage  will  strengthen  and  not  jeopardize  White  Supremacy. 

Possibly  the  cheekiest  objection  is  that  the  doubling  of  the  number  of  voters 
will  increase  the  cost  of  holding  an  election.  For  150  years  the  women  have 
been  paying  taxes  to  pay  the  costs  of  elections  in  which  they  had  no  share. 
Surely  they  should  be  allowed  to  vote,  as  they  pay  their  half  of  the  cost  of 
the  elections. 


11 

There  are  those  who  oppose  woman's  suffrage  upon  the  ground  that  it  will 
demoralize  and  degrade  the  women,  while  others  are  equally  bold  in  saying 
that  if  they  are  allowed  to  vote  they  will  pass  blue  laws  enforcing  morality 
that  will  make  life  intolerable.  Experience  in  the  States  which  have  suffrage 
contradicts  both  extremes.  And  so  it  is  with  every  argument  that  has  been  used 
against  suffrage.  The  opponents  cannot  agree  among  themselves  as  to  the 
result,  and  experience  has  proven  all  sinister  predictions  to  be  false.  Where- 
ever  it  has  been  tried  there  has  resulted  improvement  in  public  morals,  in  the 
character  of  candidates  for  office,  and  better  laws,  especially  from  the  stand- 
point of  home,  education,  sanitation,  and  children.  In  those  States  no  man 
of  shady  character  dares  run  for  office.  The  women  are  sure  to  defeat  him. 
and  men  of  that  kind  are  always  irreconcilable  opponents  everywhere  to  allow- 
ing women  to  vote — naturally  so. 

In  truth  the  basis  of  Christian  civilization  depends  upon  the  conservative 
morality  and  clear  intelligence  of  the  women.  They  fill  your  churches,  they 
keep  your  schools  alive,  and  bring  up  each  succeeding  generation  to  be  good 
citizens.  Equal  suffrage  will  broaden  the  basis  for  ascertaining  the  popular 
will  and  will  by  the  intelligence  and  character  of  the  new  voters  elevate  and 
purify  the  ballot. 

There  are  those  who  say  that  Scripture  is  against  it.  But  we  know  that 
Deborah  was  a  successful  general  and  a  great  judge  and  for  40  years  ruled 
Israel,  and  that  during  her  reign  "all  the  land  had  peace."  But  they  say  that 
St.  Paul  spoke  somewhat  against  women  and  urged  that  they  should  keep 
silent.  Did  he  ever  try  to  make  them  do  so?  No  one  will  presume  to  criticise 
Paul,  who  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  in  history,  but  it  is  permissible  to 
quote  what  Peter,  the  chief  of  the  Apostles,  said  of  him :  "Our  beloved 
brother  Paul",  (note  the  courtesy  of  this  fisherman  of  Galilee)  "hath  said 
many  things  hard  to  be  understood,  which  the  ignorant  and  unlearned  do 
wrest  to  their  oicn  condemnation.'"    2  Pet.,  ch.  Ill :  15,  16. 

BASIS    OF    SUFFRAGE. 

The  logical,  the  just,  the  inevitable  result  of  Democracy  is  the  extension  of 
the  suffrage  to  women,  and  to  throw  open  the  honors  and  the  employments  of 
government  to  all  those  who  contribute  to  the  material  and  moral  welfare  of 
the  Republic,  and  who  as  a  class  are  possessed  of  the  mental  capacity  and 
moral  character  to  be  worthy  of  the  trust,  and  to  give  an  avenue  open  to  merit 
without  distinction  of  birth  or  sex.  What  is  the  provision  in  the  Constitution 
of  your  State  as  to  voting?  It  grants  the  right  of  suffrage  to  every  adult 
excepting  only  four  classes  : 

1.  Idiots  and  lunatics — because  they  are  mental  defectives. 

2.  Convicts — because  they  are  moral  defectives. 

3.  Illiterates — unless  their  ancestors  were  white. 

4.  Women — the  mothers,  wives,  and  daughters  of  the  white  men  of  North 
Carolina. 

No  matter  how  bad  a  character  a  man  has,  if  he  can  only  keep  out  of  the 
penitentiary  and  the  insane  asylum  we  permit  him  to  vote  and  to  take  a  share 
in  the  government,  but  we  are  afraid  to  trust  our  mothers,  ivives,  and  daughters 
to  give  us  the  aid  of  their  intelligence  and  clear  insight. 

We  let  an  illiterate  foreigner  from  Italy,  from  Hungary,  from  Syria  come 
to  our  State,  and  after  five  years,  if  he  is  a  man,  and  goes  through  a  certain 
formula,  you  will  adjudge  him  fit  to  be  a  voter.  We  let  the  bartender  and 
those  who  live  upon  the  evils  and  vices  of  life  have  a  vote,  while  you  deny  it 
to  your  mothers,  your  wives,  your  sisters,  and  your  daughters. 

They  say  that  a  woman  has  no  time  to  vote.  If  she  cannot  get  half  an 
hour  off  once  in  two  years-  to  go  to  the  polls  then  they  need  the  ballot  badly. 
They  say  there  is  dirt  in  politics.  The  men  put  it  there,  for  they  alone  have 
been  running  it,  and  toe  need  the  women  to  give  us  a  good  housecleaning. 
As  Mr.  Bryan  said,  "We  need  the  ballot  of  the  loomen  more  than  they  need 
it  for  themselves." 

We  are  drawing  upon  the  latent  powers  of  our  soil  and  making  one  acre 
produce  what  three  did  before.  We  are  drawing  upon  the  latent  resources 
of  our  people  and  educating  our  boys  and  girls,  bringing  out  those  powers  of 


12 

mind  which  will  develop  our  State.  Why  should  we  stop  there?  If  a  man 
had  two  sons  and  when  their  education  was  completed  should  say  to  one  that 
all  avenues  of  opportunity  were  open  to  him  and  all  honors,  even  the  Presi- 
dency itself,  but  should  say  to  the  other  of  equal  education,  and  perhaps 
greater  ability,  that  he  should  hang  around  the  back  lot,  should  have  no 
share  in  the  government,  no  voice  in  the  disposition  of  the  taxes  he  paid, 
what  would  you  think  of  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  that  man?  Yet  we  are 
doing  this  identical  thing  when  we  open  the  door  of  every  opportunity  and  the 
path  to  every  honor  to  the  boys  and  close  it  to  the  girls  with  equal  education 
and  sometimes  of  superior  ability. 

MRS.    A.    V.    WETTIN. 

Let  me  give  you  one  illustration.  Many  years  ago  there  was  a  good  woman, 
a  womanly  woman,  who  had  a  home  in  a  foreign  country  and  a  nursery  in 
'  which  she  raised  up  nine  children.  Her  legal  married  name  was  Mrs.  Alex- 
andria V.  Wettin.  Her  maiden  name  was  Guelph.  Probably  few  of  you 
have  heard  of  her  by  that  name?  None  of  us  would  have  heard  of  her  by 
any  name,  but  because  her  country  did  not  disqualify  women  from  a  share  in 
the  government  she  is  known  to  all  of  you  as  Victoria,  sixty-four  years  Queen 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland ;  Empress  of  India ;  sixty-four  years  Sovereign 
over  500,000,000  men,  one-third  of  the  human  race,  and  ruler  over  a  Dominion 
upon  which  the  sun  never  sets,  and  of  which  Daniel  Webster  said  "Whose 
morning  drum  beat  following  the  sun  and  keeping  company  with  the  hours 
encircles  the  globe  with  one  continuous  and  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial 
airs  of  England."  Her  influence  upon  the  moral  and  social  life  at  Court  and 
among  her  people  raised  it  from  the  low  level  to  which  the  debaucheries  of 
her  predecessors  had  sunk  it  and  made  life  gentler,  sweeter,  and  purer.  Her 
influence,  like  that  of  all  good  women  everywhere,  was  not  bounded  by  the 
rising  of  the  sun  or  the  setting  thereof,  but,  like  the  mercies  of  God,  shall 
endure  throughout  all  generations. 

She  was  also  head  of  the  Church,  and  appointed  all  the  bishops  and  arch- 
bishops, and  upon  the  validity  of  such  appointment  by  her  and  by  another 
woman,  Queen  Elizabeth,  depends  the  regularity  of  ordination  and  confirma- 
tion of  those  wh"  believe  in  apostolic  succession,  but  in  this  State  there  are 
still  a  few  churches  which  will  not  allow  women  to  have  a  voice  in  the 
churches  which  they  support  and  fill. 

In  England  a  woman  could  be  a  great  and  good  chief  executive  and  a  power 
for  good  beyond  calculation.  In  North  Carolina  she  is  denied  all  share  in  the 
government,  and  cannot  even  be  a  notary  public  to  certify  to  her  own  acts  as 
stenographer,  and  can  no  longer,  as  in  the  past,  render  even  subordinate 
service  as  deputy  clerk,  or  deputy  register,  or  in  any  other  capacity.  Why 
have  the  women  of  North  Carolina  so  deteriorated  from  the  qualities  with 
which  they  are  still  invested  in  the  country  from  which  we  came?  Or  are  our 
men  less  capable  of  knowing  their  value? 

In  Montana  a  woman  has  been  elected  Representative  in  Congress.  In 
North  Carolina  she  cannot  be  a  justice  of  the  peace.  In  Colorado  and  several 
other  States  for  years  women  have  been  State  superintendents,  and  in  Wyom- 
ing, out  of  thirty  counties  the  superintendents  of  schools  in  twenty-nine 
counties  are  women,  and  the  same  is  true  throughout  the  West. 

At  the  great  Convention  of  the  Democratic  Party  at  St.  Louis,  Miss  Kate 
Gordon,  a  member  of  one  of  the  proudest  families  in  the  South,  said  to  the 
Convention :  "In  the  South  the  women  are  the  political  inferiors  of  your 
negroes."  It  struck  the  Southern  delegates  as  if  a  lash  had  been  laid  on  their 
cheeks.     It  was  true. 

WORLD    MOVEMENT. 

This  movement  is  world-wide.  It  reaches  from  pole  to  pole.  Throughout 
Australia,  with  an  area  equal  to  that  of  the  United  States,  women  vote  for, 
and  are  eligible  to,  every  office  equally  with  men.  The  same  is  true  in  New 
Zealand,  which  has  the  most  progressive  government  on  earth.  It  is  equally 
true  of  half  the  area  of  Canada,  that  is,  four  provinces  out  of  nine.     Equal 


13 

right  to  suffrage  and  to  office  prevails  in  all  the  Scandinavian  countries — Fin- 
land, Sweden,  Norway,  Denmark,  and  Iceland.  In  Holland  in  the  last  few 
days  they  have  struck  out  the  word  "male"  from  their  Constitution,  and  it  is 
strange  that  they  have  not  done  so  before,  for  their  Chief  Executive  is  a 
woman,  and  her  heir  apparent  is  an  only  child,  a  daughter.  In  this  country 
twelve  great  States  have  conferred  suffrage  upon  their  women,  and  in  the 
ninety-one  votes  cast  by  them  was  the  balance  of  power  which  decided  the 
Presidency  and  the  administration  of  this  great  government  for  the  next  four 
years.  In  twenty  other  of  our  States  the  women  already  have  municipal  or 
school  suffrage.  In  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  for  thirty  years  women 
have  had  municipal  suffrage,  and  they  have  been  on  the  board  of  aldermen  in 
the  greatest  city  in  the  world,  London.  The  Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Asquith, 
who  has  hitherto  opposed  the  admission  of  women  to  full  suffrage,  now  has 
pledged  himself  to  grant  it,  seeing  that  the  patriotism  of  the  women  and 
their  efficient  aid  in  making  munitions  and  in  filling  civil  positions  from 
policeman  to  street-car  conductor  have  saved  the  situation  and  enabled  Eng- 
land to  face  the  German  storm.  The  new  Premier,  Lloyd-George,  has  long 
advocated  it. 

This  movement  is  not  a  fad,  a  passing  fancy,  but  is  a  world-wide  movement, 
one  of  the  greatest  movements  of  all  time,  lifting  mankind  to  a  higher  level. 
It  appeals  to  every  sense  of  justice  by  calling  to  a  share  in  the  government 
those  who  do  full  half  the  work  of  Christian  civilization,  and  in  whose  moral 
and  mental  qualities  and  unbounded  patriotism  there  is  an  unlimited  reservoir 
o£  mental  and  moral  force  to  develop  society  and  the  State  and  to  make  our 
future  great  and  glorious. 

When  Aycock  and  Alderman  and  Joyner  and  Mclver  went  up  and  down  in 
the  State  to  awaken  interest  in  education,  that  you  might  develop  your  State, 
they  did  not  limit  their  appeal  to  the  education  of  the  boys.  But  why  should 
you  educate  the  other  half  if  you  are  to  awaken  in  them  ambitions  and  hopes 
and  a  sense  of  mental  power  only  to  frustrate  them? 

The  German  Emperor,  who  believes  in  brute  force  and  divine  right  as  the 
basis  of  all  government,  said  that  women  should  be  confined  to  the  three  K's — 
Kuchen,  Kirche,  and  Kinder,  that  is,  to  the  kitchen,  the  church,  and  the  chil- 
dren. In  doing  this  he  has  stated  the  three  bases  upon  which  Christian 
civilization  rests — the  children,  that  is  the  future;  the  church,  that  is  the 
morality  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  kitchen,  the  physical  support  of 
mankind. 

As  Owen  Meredith  said : 

"We  may  live  without  poetry,  music  and  art ; 
"We  may  live  without  conscience,  and  live  without  heart ; 
"We  may  live  without  friends,  we  may  live  without  books, 
"But  civilized  man  cannot  live  without  cooks." 

If  a  woman  can  fulfill  these  duties  and  fill  them  well,  like  Atlas  she  bears 
the  burden  of  the  world  on  her  shoulders,  and  instead  of  being  denied  all  voice 
in  the  government  which  she  supports,  she  should  rather  be  entitled  to  a 
double  vote. 

GIVE   THE    HOME   A  VOTE. 

It  is  true  that  the  greatest  sphere  for  women  is  at  their  homes,  though  this 
overlooks  the  fact  that  many  are  not  married  and  are  not  the  heads  of 
families.  If  home  is  the  natural  sphere  of  a  large  portion  of  one  sex,  so  is 
the  farm,  the  blacksmith  shop,  the  lawyer's  office,  the  bank,  the  mercantile 
establishment  and  other  avocations  the  sphere  of  the  other  sex.  We  do  not 
disfranchise  a  farmer,  a  merchant,  a  banker,  or  any  other  man  because  that 
such  is  his  sphere,  but  we  call  them  to  share  in  the  government  and  to  help 
make  the  State  all  that  it  should  be  by  an  intelligent  exercise  of  the  right  of 
suffrage. 

We  live  not  by  figures  on  a  dial  plate,  but  by  heart  throbs.  Let  me  tell  you 
ladies  how  to  know  when  a  man  is  old.  If  his  heart  and  head  are  not  open 
to  pleas  for  justice  to  women,  and  he  does  not  perceive  that  we  need  their  aid, 
then  indeed  he  is  a  left-over  from  the  past.  His  ideas  are  not  those  of  the 
new  world  that  is  opening  before  us,  but  he  is  hopelessly  old  in  thought  and 


14 

feeling  and  belongs  to  the  past.  There  is  a  disease  known  as  hardening  of  the 
arteries.  Our  learned  medical  brethren  call  it  arterio-sclerosis.  Such  a  man 
has  arterio-sclerosis  of  the  brain. 

This  measure  has  been  long  in  preparation ;  its  success  is  inevitable  because 
it  is  based  upon  elementary  justice,  and  is  required  by  the  best  interest  of  the 
State  which  demands  the  best  talent  and  the  participation  of  all  the  people  in 
the  development  of  our  State.  Already  the  eastern  sky  is  tinted  with  the 
golden  coruscations  of  the  dawn.  Suffrage  will  come  as  surely  as  the  daylight 
comes  when  the  night  is  done.  It  will  come  like  that  far-off  Divine  Event 
when  "the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters  and  said,  let  there 
be  light,  and  there  was  light." 


MUNICIPAL  SUFFRAGE  FOR  WOMEN 


REPLY  OF  THE  LEGISLATIVE  COMMITTEE  IN  1917  OF  THE   NORTH 
CAROLINA   EQUAL   SUFFRAGE   LEAGUE. 


The  movement  for  justice  to  women  in  North  Carolina  is  nonpartisan,  as  it 
has  been  in  every  other  State.  We  did  not  expect  that  a  partisan  appeal  would 
be  made  to  deny  us  a  fair  share  in  the  government  under  which  we  live,  and 
to  the  support  of  which  we  pay  our  taxes  and  contribute  our  full  share  of 
labor,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  every  party  has,  through  its  papers,  platform, 
and  speakers,  called  strenuously  upon  the  women  for  support. 

There  are  in  this  State  700,000  white  adults,  of  whom  350,000  are  white 
women ;  and  300.000  negro  adults,  of  whom  150,000  are  negro  women.  There 
are,  therefore,  200,000  more  white  women  than  negro  women,  and  it  is  impos- 
sible that  their  admission  to  the  polls  should  jeopardize  white  supremacy. 
The  negro  women  have  the  same  grandfathers  as  the  negro  men,  and  would 
be  disqualified  to  exactly  the  same  extent.  If  under  the  present  "grandfather 
clause"  the  Democratic  majority  is  50,000,  by  doubling  the  white  vote  the 
Democratic  majority  in  the  State  would  be  doubled  if  the  white  women  are 
Democratic  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  men. 

If  after  experiment  with  municipal  suffrage,  it  is  shown  that  the  women 
here,  as  in  other  States,  desire  the  suffrage  by  voting  as  fully  as  the  men 
do,  and  that  they  have  the  judgment  and  the  patriotism  to  vote  intelli- 
gently, then  the  question  will  come  up  whether  suffrage  shall  be  extended 
to  us  in  State  matters.  How  else  can  we  ever  prove  ourselves  competent  for 
suffrage  if  we  are  denied  even  this  small  measure  as  a  trial?  If  on  such 
experiment  it  will  be  found  that  women  are  "faithful  in  a  few  things,"  as  by 
making  the  towns  cleaner  in  every  respect,  shall  we  not  then  be  admitted  to  a 
larger  degree  of  suffrage?  If  we  shall  not  prove  as  competent  and  intelligent 
as  our  brothers,  our  husbands,  and  our  sons,  we  shall  not  ask  for  full  suffrage. 
We  believe  that  if  granted  a  voice  in  municipal  affairs,  we  women  will  prove 
that  woman  suffrage  means  an  extension  of  the  "home  idea,"  so  as  to  make 
our  larger  home,  the  town  or  city  in  which  we  live,  more  homelike,  cleaner, 
healthier,  and  a  safer  and  more  virtuous  place  in  which  to  rear  our  children. 

The  argument  used  against  us  does  not  answer  the  proposition  that  women 
are  intelligent  and  patriotic  and  competent  to  vote,  nor  does  it  answer  the 
fact  that  there  are  200,000  more  white  women  than  negro  women  in  North 
Carolina,  but  it  is  based  upon  "if"  after  "if,"  and  runs  somewhat  thus : 
If  the  negro  women  shall  all  register  and  vote,  and  if  thereupon  all  the 
negro  men  shall  for  some  unexplainable  reason  become  competent  to  register 
and  vote,  and  if  the  white  women  here  (contrary  to  statistics  in  suffrage 
States)  shall  not  vote,  then  the  Democratic  party  might  be  defeated.  Should 
such  a  combination  of  "ifs"  upon  "if"  deter  our  legislators  from  passing  such 
an  act  as  will  allow  women  to  vote  on  town  matters  in  those  towns  where  the 
people  are  willing  to  trust  us? 


15 

The  colored  people  are  here,  and  will  be  for  the  next  thousand  years.  Shall 
the  white  women  of  North  Carolina  be  disfranchised  on  this  account,  when  our 
sisters  in  other  States  are  admitted  to  share  in  the  governments  under  which 
they  live,  and  which  they  support  as  fully  as  the  men  by  their  contributions 
in  taxes  and  labor? 

Under  a  government  which  avowedly  rests  "upon  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned," and  where  it  has  been  always  maintained  that  "taxation  without  rep- 
resentation is  tyranny,"  we  appeal  to  the  sense  of  justice  of  the  people  of  this 
State,  acting  through  their  representatives  in  the  General  Assembly,  to  permit 
the  mothers,  wives,  and  daughters  of  the  voters  of  North  Carolina  to  prove 
by  a  trial  in  the  municipal  elections  in  such  towns  as  shall  trust  them  to  make 
the  experiment,  to  prove  that  the  women  of  the  State  do  wish  to  vote,  and 
that  they  can  do  so  intelligently,  and  that  they  will  not  fail  to  voice  what  is 
for  the  best  interests  of  the  communities  in  which  they  live. 
Respectfully, 

Legislative  Committee  North  Carolina 
Equal  Suffrage  League, 
Mrs.  C.  A.  Shore,.  Chairman. 
Raleigh,  N.  C,  3  February,  1917. 


THE  CENSUS  TELLS  THE  STORY 


I>y  the  Census  of  1910  the  population  of  North  Carolina 

was  upwards  of 2,200,000 

Now,  7  years  later,  at  the  same  rate  of  increase  it  is  over__2,500,000 

The  rule  is  one  adult  male  to  every  5  persons  which  gives 

us  as  adult  males 500,000 

There  are  fully  as  many  adult  females 500,000 

Total  adult  males  and  females 1,000,000 

As  the  ratio  in  North  Carolina  by  the  Census  is  70%  white  and 
30%  negro,  it  follows  that  the  negro  adults,  male  and  female,  are 
300,000  and  the  white  adults,  male  and  female,  are  700,000.  One- 
half  (350,000)  of  these  last  are  of  course  white  females,  making 
50,000  more  adult  white  women  than  the  300,000  negro  men  and 
negro  ivomen  combined. 


16 


THE  VERY  LATEST  IN  SUFFRAGE  MAPS 
(Don't  Overlook  Rhode  Island) 

White  States:  Full  Suffrage 
Dotted       "        Presidential  Suffrage 
+  +  "         Primary  Suffrage 

(Municipal,  School,  and  Bond  Suffrage  Not  Shown) 


COMMERCIAL  PRINTING  COMPANY,  RALEIGH,  N.  C. 


